


no matter what

by astrolotree



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: (for now at least until Junior Year), Camping, F/F, Post-Canon, Religious Discussion, Road Trips, Takes place after the end of Sophomore Year but before Boys Night!, i just wanted them to have a good campfire discussion, its not perfect but its what i got
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:26:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27973043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrolotree/pseuds/astrolotree
Summary: Conversations on a road trip are either completely non-sensical or extremely deep. Ragh and Tracker have both on the journey across Fallinel.
Relationships: Kristen Applebees/Tracker O'Shaughnessey, Ragh Barkrock & Tracker O'Shaughnessey
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	no matter what

**Author's Note:**

> A little fic I made for my good friend Anna for his birthday!
> 
> Title and lyrics from "No Matter What" from Steven Universe the Movie. Also somewhere in there a parody of Blink-182. I like both, what can I say.

_In the light of the day_

  
_In the dark of the night_

* * *

_Chickathunk. Chickathunk. Chickathunk._

The van made only those three noises in the 7 hours Ragh had been driving the annoyingly flawless dirt roads of Drau’ghechor County. Seriously, it was like the Court of Stars hired someone to sweep all the unseemly pebbles and stones of the and oh my gods they actually did. 

Ragh looked ahead and about a quarter-mile up the road, he saw a number of elves in green vests and woven robes sweeping the highway with brooms and dustpans. The orc slowed down and laid on the horn for them to get out of the way. They jumped, obviously startled that anything, even as gaudy and bulky as the Solisian van, would be traveling on these forgotten pathways. 

_Fuck. Fallinel fuckin’ sucks._

Once he had gotten over the initial shock of the frankly ridiculous image of highway attendants, Ragh’s thoughts drifted homeward, to Momma Barkrock in Mordred Manor, the Bad Kids and the numerous Spring Break Shenanigans (Long Live the Crab King!), and full circle to the passenger currently occupying the extra-dimensional space situated in the bed of the van.

“AY TRACKER!”

“WHAT?”

“ANY MUSIC PREFERENCES?”

“ANYTHING BY BLESS-225!”

“THE ROCK ANGELS?”

“YEAH!”

“GOT IT!”

Ragh then fiddles with the radio controls, swiping through the music library Gorgug helped him to hook up into their van until he got to “All the Small Wings”. 

“POP ROCK INCOMING!”

“THEY’RE GOOD AND YOU KNOW IT!”

Ragh grinned and started drumming his fingers on the wheels to the beat of the song. He almost got lost in the song when his passenger and client Tracker O'Shaughnessey scrambled over the seats and plopped down into the front seat, decked out in a tank-top and pajama pants. Ragh himself was about to comment on the look but realized he wasn't in a much better place, wearing an old fundraising shirt from the Aguefort LGBTQ+ Student Union and exercise shorts (a look that he had taken to calling business lazy). 

Tracker lifted her feet onto the dashboard and held out a bag of dragon jerky to Ragh, who happily obliged. 

“Any signs of imperfection in High Elf Land show up yet?”

“Actual street sweepers, if you can believe it.”

Tracker looked over with an incredulous look on her face. “You’re shitting me.”

“Hand to heart. Was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen, and that includes the entire experience with Fabian’s ‘grandpapa’.”

Tracker laughs one of her very inelegant but purely genuine laughs, but then a look that Ragh has seen far too much on this trip crosses her face: one of confusion and annoyance. 

It’s silent between for longer than Ragh would care to admit.

“...”

“Do you think we’re doing the right thing?”

* * *

_When you’re raring to go_

  
_When you’re tired from the fight_

* * *

After the sun set, Ragh pulled the van up to a riverbank and started to set up the canvas canopy his mom insisted they bring with them over the back doors of the van. Gods above, what a kick-ass mom. Since her earlier question, Tracker has gone down a theological rabbit hole, asking all sorts of things Ragh can only barely catches. He makes a few final knots to finish up with the canopy and goes to join Tracker, who is already spouting off some analysis on a doctrine.

“If you are a lunar goddess, that means change is an essential part of you, right? That makes sense! But then you also have to think about how worshipers shape their goddess. So if the worshipers of Galicaea can actively shape the form and psyche and temperance of the divine, do divine beings have free will? And for that matter, is anything they do preordained by some architect of OUR free will? And once again does that mean that we are in fact-”

“O'Shaughnessey?”

“WHAT?

“Breathe.”

Ragh sees Tracker give him a wild-eyed death stare, which fades immediately into just...exhaustion.

“Ragh, I... I’m just SO. FUCKING. TIRED.”

“I feel that.”

“I mean I thought I could get a decent night’s sleep after everything that went down in that forest, but I just have so many more questions now, and no one seems to have the answers. Normally I would talk to Kristen about these kinds of things, no offense-”

“None taken. Continue.”

“But her whole shtick now is NOT knowing, and for someone whose faith has been fundamentally shaken by learning the current popular incarnation of your goddess is actually ashamed of you as a follower, that’s not a comforting philosophical standpoint. Ragh, I love her so so so so much but just...” Ragh then hears a muffled scream which he can only assume to be Tracker screaming into her tank-top.

“And this road trip is fun and all, don’t get me wrong, but just. I wish we were making more of an impact. The Galicaean churches we’ve visited? Honestly remind me a lot of the Sol churches back home...”

“You got that out?”

“Pffffffffff. Yeah, or at least some of it.”

“Can I give you some advice?”

“Shoot.”

“Number One: This isn’t a foot race, bro. It’s a marathon. We both knew coming into this that this wasn’t gonna be easy or safe. I mean, I know you brought me along for some reason, but I didn’t think it was to be your eye candy.”

That gets a rise out of Tracker. 

“Number Two: Gods are weird as hell, and I say that full well knowing the mission we are on. What I do believe though is that you are not wrong for believing in your Galicaea. She is as much a part of the goddess as that pasty high elven caricature. Anyone who says otherwise WILL be receiving a face full of great-axe. “

Tracker is full-on snort-laughing now.

“THERE SHE IS!”

“Alright, alright, point made, Barkrock.”

“And another thing, You don’t think Kristen supports you? Have you seen the side of the van???”

They both look back at the side of the van. Painted over an acid trip mural of a wizard on a unicorn in space was an expanse of bright, sliver stars outshining the rest of the scene, each encompassing a wolf’s den. Tracker still keeps the flag the piece was based on near or on her person almost constantly. 

“Look at me and tell me that’s not support.”

“...Ragh, I think I might end up marrying her.”

Laughter echoes through the night from the both of them and pans out to the moon.

* * *

_When you’re losing your mind,_

  
_let me give you a thought:_

  
_I’m gonna be right by your side_

  
_No matter what_

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday, Anna! I both hate and love the fact that you got me into this fandom, but love ya bunches. Hope you like it!
> 
> \- Astro


End file.
